Trivializing Teacher Education: The Accreditation Squeeze

Do NCATE standards create better teachers? Not necessarily, according to the editors, all of whom hail from Dowling College. In fact, they believe the lack of research supporting the notion that NCATE accreditation is a positive force in creating qualified teachers is reason alone for institutions to reconsider whether they should invest the time and money it takes to go through the process. They advocate careful review of the results of NCATE accreditation on an institution-by-institution level, to see if in fact the quality of teachers from those institutions is increased, and a reassessment of whether NCATE is an agent of positive change in education. They describe NCATE operations and governance, its standards, positions, policies and projects, its investment in testing and lack of investment in research, and the economics of NCATE accreditation in terms of what universities pay and what NCATE does with the money. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR